Feminine hygiene articles such as sanitary napkins are used by women during their menstrual periods to receive and contain blood discharges from the vagina. These absorbent sanitary articles are normally placed between the user's crotch and her undergarment. In addition to collecting menses, these articles may also be used to protect the wearer's undergarment from other bodily fluid such as urine in the case of light incontinence of the user.
These articles are generally flat and comprise a body-facing surface and an opposite garment-facing surface. Many commercial products are decorated on their body-facing surface with embossments. Various embossed decorative patterns have been proposed, see for example U.S. D403,764, U.S. D430,292. It has also been proposed to use non-embossed decorations, in particular colored pattern, on the body-facing surface of such articles for aesthetic reasons or to convey a functional benefit. For example in WO 03/53313 a concentric multi-tone non-embossed combination is used in the center of the body-surfacing to convey an impression of depth and absorbency to the user. In WO 02/07662, dark non-embossed absorbent articles are proposed to be worn with dark underwear to be less conspicuous.
Only few products have been marketed showing on their body-facing surface at the same time an embossed pattern and a non-embossed pattern. One reason for this is the additional cost and complexity of applying two patterns of different natures in a coordinated way (“registration”). For example, because embossment and ink are applied in different process steps, it is easy for slight variations or displacements in the horizontal, vertical or both directions to occur during the high-speed manufacturing process. This is not a problem when only one decorative pattern is applied, as the slight shift away from the ideally desired position will generally not be noticed by the user. However when two kinds of patterns such as a non-embossed (e.g. colored) and an embossed pattern are applied, they are normally expected to have some degree of correspondence to provide an aesthetic effect. An accidental displacement of one or the other pattern will be easily recognized by a consumer because these patterns will no longer match each others in the originally desired way. Continuously monitoring and correcting the position of the patterns however significantly raise the cost and manufacturing complexity of the process.
There is therefore a need for a feminine hygiene article comprising on its body-facing surface an embossed pattern and a non-embossed pattern that provide the appearance or appeal of registration but do not require continuous registration.
The inventors have found that instead of continuously monitoring and correcting the position of the patterns during manufacture, it was possible to achieve results having for the user the appeal of registration even after slight horizontal or vertical displacements of any or both of the patterns. This result is obtained by applying a wavy embossed pattern and a wavy non-embossed pattern having certain geometric parameters. In these conditions, it was found that the visual appeal for the users (the appearance of registration) is kept even when slight shifts occur.